by Rod_outbak » 18 Jun 2018, 11:52 am
My $2, (As a landholder in Outback QLD...)
We look at any shooters coming onto the property, mostly from the angle of 'Risk Assessment'.
Unless I know the shooter, or have someone known to me who can vouch for the shooter, it's a struggle to let complete strangers come shoot unsupervised.
[And I suspect this is your greatest stumbling block in finding land to shoot on as well.]
Nothing to do with your own skills/intentions as such, but the difficulty the landholder faces in assessing the risk they take by letting you onto their land.
We occasionally get leaflets from people wanting to come shooting and/or pigging on the property, and they mostly end up in the bin.
Until we can be sure the risk of letting someone onto the place, it's not worth it.
In decades past, we didnt have things like 'Farm Biosecurity', 'Duty of care', 'Livestock Production Assurance', and other crap to deal with, so it was a bit easier to make the call.
Some of the risks the landholder faces are:
- Risk of shooters not understanding where they can & cant shoot on the property.
- Risk of shooters leaving behind rubbish or potential contaminants.
- Risk of shooters bringing mates along, and them not having been inducted into what the landholder wants from the shooters.
- Risk of shooters having a completely different set of ideas on whats acceptable when shooting on the property.
- Risks of unknown visitors crossing the country where the shooters are operating (like electricity authority, and a few clueless Govt types).
- Risk of lambing ewes being mis-mothered due to someone wandering(and/or shooting) through them.
- Risk of livestock being hit by gunfire.
- Risk of critical infrastructure like tanks, troughs and/or buildings being hit by gunfire.
- Risk of offending/upsetting neighbours as a result of gunfire near their house.
- Risk of gates being left open, and/or fences being opened up for access.
- Risk of shooters not understanding the legal issues when shooting near/from/over public land (eg: public roads)
- Risk of shooters not having the same values when it comes to shooting wildlife (ferals and/or some of the local animals)
And YES; ALL of the above have been issues for us in the past. For some of them, more than once.
I also appreciate that the OP was talking about access to an open paddock or two to simply pokk some bunnies, which is a much smaller scale than what I'm talking about. Some of the above issues arent going to translate to smaller farm ing areas, but many will.
Now, ALL of the above risks are vastly reduced IF we have a person who can spend a little time with us, and get the run-down on how we want anyone to operate. Every property in our area operates notably differently to us, so the shooter needs to understand our operations.
We have detailed maps of the property, and we give shooters as much detail as possible about how & where we want them to operate.
The problem is; we simply dont have the time or resources to vet every person who drops a leaflet in the mailbox, or calls in to see us off the road.
Thats why having someone we know introduce (& vouch for) the shooter, gives us something of an idea on how much we can trust the shooter will follow our directions.
In our case, we have 2 registered roo-shooters, and 3 groups of hunters who regularly visit during most years, for a week or so of pokking.
We also have some family and friends who visit, who also might do a spot of pokking, but usually they will be accompanied by one of us.
But none of these people were casual drop-ins; they were all known to us, or had someone who could vouch for them.
Thats one major benefit of the 'Farmer Assist' program; it gives the landholder some sort of vetting process in taking the risk.
[And No; I'm NOT a participant in Farmer Assist, but I can see the benefit of such a program. If we werent in year 7 of the worst drought in creation, I'd consider participating..]
I know I'm not offering much in the way of solutions in how to secure land to shoot on, but if you understand a bit about the landholders side of things; maybe it helps you formulate a way of making contact?
As I said; My $2.
Cheers,
Rod.
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Sharing the extreme love with cats in Outback QLD